It's an Alpha one I/O drive that I just replaced the steering cable on, with a Teleflex Safety-Q rotary cable. The steering tube is the design used with a brass block you screw the tube through, and a lock nut to set the adjustment.
The steering cable exits the tilt tube, and connects to the control arm of the I/O with a pin/cotter, like most. The end of the tilt steering tube has nothign on it. So, when you steer, the cable moves in and out with lots of grease on it, and seems like it would easily get salt/dust etc into the steering tube wothout something to hold the grease inside better, like a rubber boot of some kind.
Normally you would expect mroe problems with an outboard, but this steering unti had problems in the past with seizing, because it was used as a fishing boat, so salt water got in there on ocassion from splashing, etc. When I changed the steering cable, the tilt tube had a ton of salt encrusted in the tube that I had to scrape out to get the new cable to work properly. It is super smooth now, but it would be nice if I could hold the grease in better.
